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This is just one of many articles about UNC School of Journalism's decision to lessen the testing requirements for proper grammar and spelling. This makes me very sad. Has spellcheck made us all lazy? I wince when I read the newspaper and see how proper grammar and sentence structure has given way to "cram as much info as you can in 1 sentence."
When my kids come home with atrocious spelling on their papers and it has not been corrected, teacher tells me they just don't think spelling is as important as my generation did. The thing is to get them to try. I just don't get it.
How do you feel? Am I out of touch with "modern teaching"? Won't sentence structure, spelling and grammar always be important for good communication?
This is one of my pet peeves. My eldest went to elementary school during the era of "inventive spelling". He only overcame it by 4 years of private high school, where it was not an acceptable practice.
The younger two boys had regular spelling and grammar lessons however. All three of them have become good spellers.
I have a good friend, a college graduate, who just sent me an article she submitted to the local paper. She told me the editor cut about 80% of what she wrote. In spite of somebody obviously reviewing her submission, it was horribly written. Writing about a POW, she said he "overcame resiliency" instead of "adversity", and they printed it.
I don't care how intelligent a person is, if they can't write a sentence without spelling and grammatical errors, they look less intelligent.
I teach English, and I teach special education students. I feel strongly that students should be taught what is correct, particularly in an age of colloquialisms being accepted as the standard, rampant textspeak, etc. I don't have a problem with people using relaxed grammar when contextually appropriate (i.e. NOT in a formal writing assignment), but it's best to know what's correct before moving on to the informal version. There is also a difference between relaxed style and blatant errors. Spelling has few grey (/gray; case in point) areas. For the most part, you have either spelled something correctly, or you have not. Communication is not strengthened by slipshod writing. When you can't communicate clearly, you appear less intelligent, whether or not that is the case. In terms of grammar, there is a chance that your reader won't know the difference if you make a minor error. If you cannot spell, however, you will always look like an idiot. Typos are one thing. Truly not knowing the difference is another entirely.
When my son was about 4 we were visiting a neighbor who had an antique cash register in her den. When he tried to get it to work the women said "Oh, it's broke" To which my son said "No it must be broken" I was so proud.
My favote misuse is bring vs take. You take something away and you bring something to yourself. When my kid first said "I want to bring this to class" I gave her the lesson "I want to take this to class" and she has never forgotten it. So it may not be important in the overall scheme of life but I have taught all 4 of my kids that how you express yourself speaks volumes about how you were raised (reared) and where you will go.
We had grammar and spelling drummed into us when I was in school and some things you just don't forget. When my kids didn't have spelling tests past kindergarten I immediately started having them at home. It is no coincidence my 10 year old just placed 4th in a state-wide writing competition. So I feel our efforts at home are paying off.
Recently I was watching a Charlie Rose interview with a young man who was boasting about his education.
"I was a National Merit Scholar in high school, president of my class and I was offered several full scholarships all over the country. I could have went to any school I wanted to but I chose..."
I couldn't even listen to him after that. How could this obviously talented kid go so far without mastering the proper usage of the right tense of "to go"?
They don't even teach conjugation of verbs anymore in school do they? so sad.
Just like in any other time period, our ways of teaching go hand in hand with the social lives we are living.
Currently we (the US in general) mostly lead a fast paced, instant feedback, casual life.
It would be a bit hypocritical to teach and expect only formal speech, grammar and tightly written word in today's society when a large majority of people aren't participating in it themselves and when it doesn't fit in with the general lifestyle.
In regards to spelling.......I don't believe that a child who begins with creative spelling is doomed to be a poor speller their entire life. Instead, I believe the opposite. The child who starts with how they think it is spelled has a grasp on spelling to begin with. In my experience they are more readily prepared to learn why it's spelled differently than those who don't have that grasp on spelling and are only copying what they see from memory.
In order to spell correctly one must have a good understanding of how the English language works with all it's quirks and oddities. That understanding cannot be effectively taught in Kindergarten to most students. It generally comes a little later. That is why those kids are focusing on learning sight words (those that you really can't justify why they are spelled/pronounced the way they are) and short common words like cat, dog, hat and run. So if these kids are allowed to start off spelling how it sounds to them, it fits much better into their learning to add in the rules and catches as they progress.
Now if you have a school that is not adding in the rules, quirks and oddities later or they don't expect correct spelling under certain circumstances, then you have an issue within your particular school. That is not the case in our district, thankfully.
I'll tackle spelling problems. I used to be much better at spelling, but the more I'm on-line, the poorer my spelling becomes because I rely on the spell check feature so much. Case in point, I just spelled spell check as one word and the little red line told me to check it, and sure enough it's two words. I'm much more apt to make spelling errors when I write something long hand. I think differently when I write because of that lack of deliberation to make sure words are spelled correctly.
It would be a bit hypocritical to teach and expect only formal speech, grammar and tightly written word in today's society when a large majority of people aren't participating in it themselves and when it doesn't fit in with the general lifestyle.
Isn't this the very definition of dumbing down?
I don't advocate formal speaking just correct use of the English language. I have no problem with regional slang or even new words but it is very sad when you can't even carry on a conversation with a clerk in person or on the phone.
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